In the spring of 2010 the world watched for weeks as more than 200 million gallons of crude oil billowed from a hole three miles deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Warnings of various and imminent environmental consequences dominated the news. Deepwater drilling—largely ignored or misunderstood to that point—exploded in the American consciousness in the worst way possible.

Fire on the Horizon, written by gCaptain founder John Konrad and award winning Washington Post journalist Tom Shroder, recounts in vivid detail the life of the rig itself, from its construction in South Korea in the year 2000 to its improbable journey around the world to its disastrous end, and reveals the day-to-day lives, struggles, and ambitions of those who called it home.

From the little-known maritime colleges to Transocean’s training schools and Houston headquarters to the small towns all over the country where the wives and children of the Horizon’s crew lived in the ever-present shadow of risk hundreds of miles away, Fire on the Horizon offers full-scale portraits of the Horizon’s captain, its chief mate, its chief mechanic, and others.

What emerges is a white-knuckled chronicle of engineering hubris at odds with the earth itself, an unusual manifestation of corporate greed and the unforgettable heroism of the men and women on board the Deepwater Horizon. Here is the harrowing minute-by-minute account of the fateful day, April 20, 2010, when the half-billion-dollar rig blew up, taking with it the lives of eleven people and leaving behind a swath of unprecedented natural destruction.

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Publisher’s Weekly

“informative and undeniably important…” -Publisher’s Weekly

Evelyn Alland

“THIS BOOK IS THE TRUTH – I know my son was there” -Evelyn Alland

Sebastian Junger

“This has to be one of the best disaster books I’ve ever read….and the fact that it was written in six months leaves me absolutely dumbfounded. Konrad and Shroder have exposed a very important story and also written a superb and thrilling book. I tore through it like a novel but with the queasy knowledge that the whole damn thing is true. A phenomenal feat of journalism.” -Sebastian Junger, Author Of The Perfect Storm and WAR.

The Daily Beast

“John Konrad and Tom Shroder team up to deliver a compellingly gripping account of the disastrous Gulf oil spill… Together Konrad and Shroder deliver the best account yet of what went wrong.” -Editor, The Daily Beast Book Review

The New York Review Of Books

“An excellent book that wraps concise explanations of technology into a fascinating story of danger and tragedy on the rig.” -Peter Maass, The New York Review Of Books

Los Angeles Times

“I’m well into ‘Fire on the Horizon.’ It’s the fifth book on the spill that I’ve read and wish I had read it first. Head and shoulders above the pack…. Artfully and compellingly told, the book marries a John McPhee feel for the technology to a Jon Krakauer sense of an adventure turned tragic.” -Geoffrey Mohan, LA Times

Maritime Executive Magazine

“An extraordinary true-life adventure tale reminiscent of The Perfect Storm, Fire On The Horizon is a whole scale portrait of what went wrong that day last April. It is also a multifaceted look at deepwater drilling, replete with swashbuckling history, astonishing technology, and the disturbing vulnerabilities of this vital and little understood corner of our lives.” Maritime Executive Magazine

Council Of Master Mariners

“Gripping and harrowing, Fire on the Horizon is both a page-turning account of that day and a narrative of the lives involved before, during, and after the explosion.” Sidelights Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

“Konrad writes of the rig with easy familiarity, while comfortably populating it with its maritime and drilling crews and warmly conveying the camaraderie that suffused the platform…. he turns the drilling process into a fine choreography, offering an effective critique of the corporate edicts that jeopardized the safety of the rig’s people and the integrity of the exploratory well.” -Editor, Kirkus Reviews

Miami Herald

“At its best, the book is a fascinating look at a little-understood industry and a fast-paced and emotional story of the efforts to save the Deepwater Horizon. The authors’ account of the workers’ race to save themselves is thrilling and suspenseful, and yet the book is also a sensitive account of the lives forever changed.” -Susannah Nesmith, Miami Herald

Reader Reviews

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About The Authors

John Konrad

John Konrad is co-founder of Unofficial Networks and editor in chief of gCaptain.com. He is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage and, since graduating from SUNY Maritime College, has sailed a variety of ships from ports around the world. John currently lives in Morro Bay, California with his wife and two children.

Tom Shroder

Tom Shroder was an editor and writer at The Washington Post from 1999 to 2009. Under his stewardship, The Washington Post Magazine won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in both 2008 and 2010. He is the author of the nonfiction bestseller Old Souls. He lives in Vienna, Virginia.